


Throughout the Years

by pickledragon



Series: Johnrose Fics [1]
Category: Homestuck
Genre: Can be - Freeform, Canon Compliant, F/M, Gen, but i aimed toward romantic (its johnrose week lol), can be read as platonic or romantic, grimdorks - Freeform, i might have gone a tad past childhood hahaha, jade and dave are there too just in passing, slight mentions of Mom being negligent
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-10-17
Updated: 2017-10-17
Packaged: 2019-01-18 12:51:47
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 846
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12388458
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/pickledragon/pseuds/pickledragon
Summary: John and Rose send each other birthday presents. Life goes on.For Johnrose Week 2017- Day 2: Childhood





	Throughout the Years

They had met originally through the chat function of an MMORPG that Rose spent the rest of their friendship denying she had played, even excelled at. John knew better, and constantly brought it up in casual conversation. In a couple months, John recruited his other internet friend, Jade into the mix (who, as it turned out, already knew Rose) and her other friend- Dave, eventually forming a party. 

During the aftermath of one particularly difficult raid- (John up late at night, illegally on his dad's computer as usual), the conversation led to personal life. Rose mentioned offhandedly that her birthday was coming up and her mom would surely make her do something dastardly. When everyone else had left, John asked Jade (who always seemed to know these things) for Rose's address. 

The first birthday they knew each other, John sent Rose a squid. It was haphazardly drawn with all the expertise of a ten year old that was given a box of colored pencils, with purple tentacles and a handwritten message in blue underneath, written- Sorry for the bad drawing, happy 11th birthday! This was followed by a long string of words that, when mushed together, were very sappy and possibly indicative of friendship, if not fondness, Rose thought. 

On April 13th, Rose sent John back a mosaic made of broken bottles, forming a multi-colored spade. Never let it be said Rose Lalonde did anything half-way. 

(Her mom had been too deep in the bottle to notice Rose scurrying around on the floor, collecting shards.) He hung it up in his room and told Dave all about it- to Rose's feigned chagrin. (It was still there, somewhere taped underneath a poster for Con Air on a planet of Wind and Shade.)

Next year- their MMORPG campaign had been especially victorious, and they were ready to move on. Transitioning directly over to Pesterchum allowed one on one conversations, and John was able to scheme with Dave and Jade. 

On Rose's twelfth birthday, John saved up and bought her a black leather notebook. Inside the front cover was a better (but still terribly drawn) squid. "For your zoological stuff :)" read the note inside. "Happy birthday, Rose." 

Jade got her a hand-drawn bookmark covered in dogs- all purple and made of felt. Dave made her a quill pen (you can figure anything out on the internet) from a dead crow he found outside his apartment. (This was to be a recurring theme.)

For John- now entering heavily into his Ghostbusters phase, Rose worked with Jade and Dave to send a single box. The box, when opened, played (Jade's work) a tinny remix of the Ghostbusters theme with cymbals every ten seconds (Dave) and launched slime at the opener's face (Rose had to wrangle that out of her mom's stash.) John, of course, loved it. 

When Rose was thirteen, the blinders were coming off. According to the rest of the world, decent parental figures weren't supposed to be sloshed every hour of the day and disappear for hours with no warning. Rose expressed this worry and new revelation by throwing herself wholeheartedly back into zoology, this time that of the dubious variety.

That year, (He had learned to pinch pennies for months to afford his friends' birthdays by now. Why did they all have to be born so close together?!?!) John dispensed with formality and sent her a bag of yarn and knitting needles. "Something creative-" Rose muttered to herself. She was pacing. There was a blue squid with a party hat at the top of the paper. Her hands clenched tight to the knitting needles. A string of blue yarn hung out of the bag.

Suddenly, Rose stopped, pulled out several shades of purple yarn, and went to work. She had a rabbit to fix.

On John's thirteenth birthday, everything went to hell. Rose gave John a bunny twice over (as did everyone else)- but she also gave him a server player and a bathtub in the middle of his hallway. Advice in the middle of an oil sea, and a cat with four eyes. 

That day, John gave Rose a salamander named Casey and a kiss on the lips. (Rose later wondered what it would have been like to be conscious for either of those.)

In the end, they missed three years. John would later joke that his bucket letter was so good it made up for every missed birthday, but Rose just rolled her eyes. The only time she saw him was in a dream bubble, fighting for revenge against a dark agent. Rose didn't know why, but she was proud of him. 

And then they made it to the new session. And then it was all over. 

A day after John's sixteenth birthday, Rose showed up to his house on the new earth. He invited her in. She gave him a hug. "Happy three late birthdays, John. I missed you." He pulled her closer to him. "I missed you too. Happy three late birthdays to you too, Rose." 

They stayed like that for a long time.

**Author's Note:**

> Hope you liked it! Comment are always appreciated ;)
> 
> tumblr: learningthomas.tumblr.com  
> Original content: pickledragonblog.weebly.com


End file.
